A Scouts Run
by Artzy Cant Write
Summary: A new recruit joins the ranking of RED. A young scout girl. However even if it was hard to even become a Merc as a female, it's even harder to perform on the field with people hunting her team's heads as well. Book Cover is a WIP


Dawn breaks and the sun rays shine right into a sleeping Scout's eyes. As the Scout wakes from their slumber, a long mess of knotted, unkempt hair follows them as they sit up. Apparently, this Scout was a female. She rubs her eyes and gets out from under her massive blanket. The Scout drags her feet over to the sink and looks at herself in the mirror. Her smooth features along with her rounded nose and dimples made for a relatively cute face. She proceeds to put her hair in a ponytail, leaving two strands of hair loose on the sides of her head. She smiles and tucks one strand of hair behind her right ear, happy with her looks. After brushing her teeth and getting dressed she walks to the door to her room, opening it to-

"Welcome to RED, Sharla!"

Soldier and Demoman were holding bottles of beer and side hugging because real men don't hug fully, as Medic, Heavy, and Sniper had welcoming grins. Ms. Pauling looked busy as usual, going through some paperwork at a table in the back of the kitchen and living room space while the male Scout was trying to smooth talk with her, failing. Spy barely paid any mind to the noise and continued to flip through a book, he seemed really into it. Engi was building a house of cards and Pyro was... Burning the house of cards.

"Hey guys, I don't think you should be drinking this early."

The Scout known as Sharla says to Demo and Soldier, questioning their motives. Ms. Pauling takes a sigh, clearly thankful that someone else agrees.

"What's wrong with a good victory drink before the victory!"

Demo chimed in, clearly intoxicated. Sharla blinks and watches Demoman start to walk forward, no back. Nevermind he fell over. Soldier begins to shout at Demo, calling him a Canadian or something. Sharla walks over to a visibly stressed Ms. Pauling.

"Oh, sorry Sharla. I'm just going through contracts for the guys. Did you need something?"

Sharla nods. "Yea actually. I was wondering if I got any contracts yet since I just got hired. I doubt it but doesn't hurt to ask"

Ms. Pauling seems to light up at the question and puts down her current stack of papers and picks up one. "This seems perfect for you to do!"

Sharla takes the contract and examines it. "So I just gotta kill this guy, then hide the body and blame it on some Harry guy. Gotcha"

Ms. Pauling nods and smiles. "Yep! If you need backup I recommend taking Spy. He should be able to help with this kind of job"

Sharla looks over at Spy, still engrossed in his book. To her, he looked intimidating even from the other side of the room. She walks over to the masked man, and just as she opens her mouth Spy spoke out.

"So you got a contract and you need my help," Spy says in a matter of fact tone.

Sharla looks slightly wide-eyed at him. "So you heard. You in or out?"

Spy closes his book and chuckles slightly. "I like your straightforwardness. But what's in it for me?"

Sharla sighs. "How does a fifty-fifty split of the cash sound?"

Spy ponders on this for a moment. "Sixty percent and I'm in."

Sharla rolls her eyes. It was hard enough to get to be a Merc as a female in the first place. "Fine, it's a deal."

Spy holds out his hand as the slightly annoyed Sharla shakes it. The two walk out of the living space and into the weaponry. There were 10 lockers filled with weaponry, one at the end looked shabby and quickly made. That was Sharla's. She pulls out her primary, goes to shortstop along with a winger and her bat.

"I really wish I didn't get battle-worn hand me downs from Scout," Sharla mutters from her locker, putting the winger and shortstop neatly in her over the shoulder messenger bag.

Spy looks over at Sharla, flipping his knife around until it closes neatly. "Well, then you should move up in the ranks. Getting more recognition could land you more jobs. And through these jobs, you can get the money for better guns."

Sharla sighs heavily. Spy is right. She just needs to get out there. She puts her bat into a holster on her hip as she starts to walk outside. The sun is blistering as Sharla puts her hand up to shield her eyes. They start walking to their destination.

The two reach a dump of a town, apparently called Tuefort. There is even trash in the town square. Sharla starts searching the surroundings, making possible escape routes in her head. Spy lightly nudges the female scout in her side, grabbing her attention. Spy motions to an alleyway between two rows of shabby houses. Walking between the wooden housings the two Mercs stumble upon the backdoor of the house of the target. Spy pulls out a lock picking kit, quietly and slowly unlocking the door. Sharla kept an eye out around the corner.

"Spy, you might wanna see this." Sharla says in a worried voice.

Spy stops picking the backdoor lock, standing up and walking around the corner to see a cold, dead body.

"This is our target. Someone got here before us." Sharla says, turning to face Spy.

"Hmm, very strange." Spy's expression turns to a scowl. His eyes scan the area.

Suddenly a knife was thrown at Spy's head. He barely manages to move his head in time, but his cheek still gets a bleeding cut, the blood beginning to soak into his already red ski mask. Sharla quickly opens her messenger bag pulling up her loaded shortstop. She takes aim in the direction the knife was thrown.

"Spy, you oka- Where did he go?" the scout looks around, unable to find her teammate. Rolling her eyes she starts to walk forward. Turning the corner she looks around, keeping her shortstop at the ready. Slowly she steps forward. Suddenly the backdoor to the previously locked house opens up as a hand reaches and grabs the scout's scarf, dragging her inside.

"Who-" Sharla gets interrupted by an abrupt shushing sound. As her eyes adjust to the darkness of the house she could make out the face of Spy, or his ski mask. Spy pulls out his knife, looking around for an escape route. As he does so, Sharla is quick to notice the scratch, or lack of, on Spy's mask

"Alright. Where's Spy?" The scout says, standing up and aiming her shortstop at the fake.

"Right here to get you out of trouble." The Spy responds. The scout narrows her eyes. Sharla keeps her eyes on the Spy, reaching behind her to take a baseball off the desk. The Spy raises an eyebrow, cautious of the situation.

"Well, tell me something only you would know then." She demands, not playing any games.

"I'll tell you that you're not as foolish as you look." In that moment, gunfire goes off as and a bullet breaks the small glass window to the left. The fake red Spy goes invisible and Sharla quickly runs out the door.

"That shot came from the left, so right." She says, turning to her right to avoid a sniper bullet to the head. As she makes her way to a cross section between four houses she sees a Red Spy, this time with a cut in his right cheek, knocked out. She kneels down and pulls him over her shoulders, not even bothering to check his pulse. She had to go fast. And as a scout, she did. She ran out from the close corridors of back alley and into the open. Nobody else was in sight. Looking behind her too her left she sees a Blu Sniper, aimed right at her head, firing as Sharla quickly steps out of the way. Looking around for cover the closest thing she finds is the town dump. Or town square. She jumps over the fence and ducks behind the statue of the mayor. Another shot gets fired right at her foot before. She takes a deep breath and checks Spy's pulse. Once she finds one she gently tries to shake him awake. light shaking turns into trashing him about like a baby rattle. Eventually Sharla just smack Spy and he finally wakes up.

"We have a problem, and you were asleep for it all." Sharla practically yells at Spy. Spy didn't retaliate at all, there was no need to.

"Just do your thing with that sniper. Also there's a Spy with him." Spy nods, understanding the plan and proceeding to use his invisibility to sneak behind the sniper. But the Blu sniper had other plans. Pulling out his machete the Sniper turns and slashes at Spy. Sharla peeks out from behind the statue to see the issue. She knows that Spy can handle this by himself as long as that other spy doesn't intervene.

She thought too soon.

She sees herself a few rooftops from the Spy Sniper duel, jumping across them. Sharla runs out from behind the statue throwing the baseball she stole high in the air. Jumping onto the fence and then off of it she pulls her bat out and wacks the baseball. Home run right into the fake Sharla, knocking him off the roof and unconscious.

Spy meanwhile parries the machete with his knife. The duel was fierce as steel met steel. Deflecting one of the machete blows, Spy steps forward in a spinning motion. Using this momentum he carried his knife from parrying the machete into the Sniper's back. The Sniper's eyes widen before falling off the roof limp and dead. Spy wipes some of the blood off his expensive suit and jumps off the roof. Sharla lands on the ground, giving Spy a thumbs up and a smile.

"We should head back and alert the team. Someone's after us." Spy says, putting his hand up to his previously bleeding cheek.

"Definitely." Sharla says with a tone of worry in her voice. So this wasn't usual.

The two look at each other for a minute before leaving the town and making their way back to base.


End file.
